I recently read an article by Jana Riess showing a study where only 10% of LDS women want the priesthood, while 48% of LDS men are supportive of them getting it.

Do you think that with such a low number of women seeking it (versus 100% of black LDS men seeking PH prior to the 1978 revelation) will draw much attention from the GAs beyond giving women more say in Councils, etc?

How would a new revelation on priesthood for women affect the 90% who do not want it? If we suddenly said they had to have a specific priesthood in order to get a temple recommend or serve in a calling, how would it turn their world upside down?

I don’t have a problem with God giving women a priesthood of some kind or the same kind. I do want it carefully considered and deliberated upon, and not just done because it is the sociological thing to do.  I think the cultural change caused by it could shock the Church right now, because most LDS women are not ready for it and not wanting it.

And there are other factors:

If women are given the exact priesthood men have, how will it affect the entire system? How would the traditional family and Proclamation on the Family be affected? With the family as the foundation of the Church, would such a major change without preparation of the members and families cause families to fall apart in the chaos that would ensue? Would it end up being like Obamacare – a huge and unpopular program that was implemented too fast and without much forethought on doing it right the first time?

And what if a different priesthood is given to women, which gave them some, but not all, the power of the men? What if there were a minor change that still accomodated the 90% of LDS women? Would it be sufficient for the women beloning to OW? Or would they then complain that it did not go far enough?  When would they state, “God has made his decision”?

Do you feel that the changes made recently in how women have more power in the Councils and as missionaries is perhaps the first step by the First Presidency to prepare the women (and members) of the Church for a form of priesthood?

Finally, if we are going to work a change, we have to bring possible solutions to the table, and not just whine and complain. How would YOU propose such change be made that works best for the women and families of the Church?

BTW, I have posted these and other questions at the FMH site, where their “diversity” is being celebrated, but no one (besides Silver Rain, who does not seek the PH) has chosen to answer my questions.

In my continued discussion on the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins and his research team determined what key things differentiate a good company from a great company, and how this may apply in the LDS Church, we now discuss the next concept:

Confronting the Brutal Facts

Too many companies and organizations fail because they do not confront the brutal facts. Problems arise, but are often ignored because no one wants to deal with the facts that what has been done in the past does not work now, or worse: never worked but was part of a long held tradition. Continue reading →

At Keepapitchinin, Ardis gives us an excellent example of how gospel twinkies are created and spread forth.  Throughout her article, lest someone quote from it and restart the fairytale story, she writes in bold: This is not true! Do not teach it!

Her article demonstrates how hearsay often replaces actual doctrine.  I recall an incident on my mission in Bolivia, way back in 1979.  My companion received a letter from family, quoting a missionary in South Africa.  This missionary stated that they had a missionary meeting with then elder Gordon B Hinckley of the Twelve.  Someone asked him when the 2nd Coming would be, and elder Hinckley (according to the story, but note: This is not true! Do not teach it!) stated that we do know some things about it.  It would be on a Sunday April 6th.  Well, the missionary then went on to speculate which future date the 2nd Coming would probably occur on.

Within 2 weeks of us reading this exciting and awesome information, both the Ensign and Church News had an article quoting Elder Hinckley stating, This is not true! Do not teach it!

The 20th century was filled with soooo much speculation and feel-good stories that were not true that since that incident on my mission, I’ve always insisted on CFR.  Whether it is Del Parson’s Christ painting miracle stories, 3 Nephite stories, the little birdies, or Cain being Bigfoot, there are always stories that we would love to be true, and often we end up willing to toss away our integrity, while hanging onto a false hope.

There is no power in falsehoods.  Just empty hopes and dreams.  But the real and true gospel of Christ opens the door for true power.  There are plenty of real accounts of miracles as Saints crossed the Plains.  There are plenty of real evidences to strengthen our faith in the Book of Mormon. We do not need stories of the 3 Nephites, when there are plenty of real miracles awaiting us.

Even more important, we need to learn the doctrine of Christ.  It contains the truths and power we need for exaltation.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland noted in his awesome General Conference talk, “A Teacher Come from God”:

When crises come in our lives—and they will—the philosophies of men interlaced with a few scriptures and poems just won’t do. Are we really nurturing our youth and our new members in a way that will sustain them when the stresses of life appear? Or are we giving them a kind of theological Twinkie—spiritually empty calories? President John Taylor once called such teaching “fried froth,” the kind of thing you could eat all day and yet finish feeling totally unsatisfied. ¹⁸ During a severe winter several years ago, President Boyd K. Packer noted that a goodly number of deer had died of starvation while their stomachs were full of hay. In an honest effort to assist, agencies had supplied the superficial when the substantial was what had been needed. Regrettably they had fed the deer but they had not nourished them. (Jeffrey R Holland, “A Teacher Come From God”, April 1998 General Conference)

Time for Latter-day Saints to give up the children’s fables and embrace real doctrine. It is time for us to scrutinize every claim, so that the things we teach are respected by Mormon and non-Mormon alike. We need to build a strong foundation for our children, so that when they go out in the world, they are not shocked by the evidences they find out there.  We need to inoculate them with the truth, so that the truth does not destroy their testimonies later, when they find they’ve only learned fairy tales.

Two recent and very interesting blog posts, one by James Faulconer, and the other by Alison Moore Smith, show a continuing and disturbing problem with Church members: they teach things that they believe, but are not doctrine (faith tenet) of the Church, as if those things were the truth.  Alison notes an interesting story: Continue reading →

I thought I would share some things I’ve been pondering on regarding the Creation story in the Book of Abraham (chapters 4-5). While much of the story is similar to the Creation stories in Genesis and the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price), there are some significant differences.

First, the BoA account not only mentions God, but the Gods as being involved in the creation.  This ties in perfectly with the ancient Jewish (and early Christian) concept of the Divine Council.  God and his divine children (sometimes called angels) work together to accomplish God’s great work. Margaret Barker, an Old Testament scholar and Methodist preacher, stated that Jesus was considered by the early Christians to be the Messiah, the Angel of the Lord’s Presence.  In LDS theology, many of God’s children (including some/many of us were involved in the Creation.

From this Creation event, we learn some possible things about the divine council, and our premortal existence.  First, we see that the Gods go down together to form the earth. In several ancient texts, such as the Ascension of Isaiah, we see angels and Christ ascending up and descending down through the various layers of heaven  to get to/from the earth.

The earth is described as “empty and desolate” and was dark.  These are descriptions of ancient Semitic stories of the Creation, where the Gods create order out of Chaos.  In this scenario, God even must fight the water dragon, in order to keep Chaos (water and darkness) at bay.

Once brought under control, the Spirit was left to “brood over the waters.” The Spirit may have been the Light of Christ, which penetrates all of space (see D&C 88, 93), as a controlling force.  One thing to consider is that instead of being a controlling force, the Spirit may have been an influencing force. In such a scenario, the Spirit would not force things to occur, but gently guide them to the final goal.

Interestingly, in commanding or pronouncing their divine will, the Gods were able to command the light, earth and waters.  However, when it comes to living things, such as plants, after the command goes forth, we read, “and the Gods saw that they were obeyed” ( 4:12) or in the case of animals, “and the Gods saw they would obey” (4:25).  In other words, the Gods did not have full and absolute power over all their creation, or chose not to impose their will over all of creation..

This suggests a few things.  First, the Gods had to await things to obey their command.  Second, some things (such as humans) would disobey along the way.  Third, this may have been a trial and error learning event for the lesser or younger Gods.

Imagine the patience it would take for Gods to form the earth, and then await billions of years for the particles making up the Earth to cool down and become solid.  Then, to await the first life to form about 2.2 billion years ago. It would take another 2.3 billion years of trying different life forms until mankind is formed.  During those billions of years, the Gods would find out how to put DNA together to form creations that could adapt and survive in varying ecosystems and disasters. Giant destructions would open the door for new species to rule the earth. 250 million years ago, a destruction would wipe out 90 percent of all life forms, opening the door for the reign of the dinosaurs. A destruction 65 millions years ago would wipe out dinosaurs, and open the door to mammals.  The last Ice Age would leave us with one species of human-like beings, removing the failed versions from the genetic pool and prepare the earth for us today.

So, now that we are mortals and trying to learn to be creators, even as God and the divine council, what can we learn from this? First, that God is very patient.  If it takes billions of years to accomplish his goals, then he is willing to wait for it to naturally come to pass. If this is so, then why are we so impatient with ourselves, our children and others?  We are all works in progress.

Second, God avoids forcing his hand unless he has to.  Instead, he guides, influences, and leads by example.  I find the more control we attempt to force upon others, the more they tend to reject what we do.  Control is usually imposed because we either lack patience or there is an urgency to get something done. Perhaps we create too many emergencies that require control, rather than patiently working things through.

Third, as with God and his divine council, we are in a constant struggle against Chaos and entropy.  There is opposition in all things (2 Nephi 2), which puts us directly in the path of Chaos. Our work here is to do God’s work, and that is to create Order out of Chaos.  It is a process that takes time.  Children are not born as a finished product.  It takes a lifetime for each of us to begin to understand who we are and why we are here.  The key is to create order, even as God does, a little at a time, and not increase the amount of chaos instead.

Interestingly, the over-use of control can actually increase chaos. Doing nothing or little also increases entropy and chaos.  In a universe that tends to move towards entropy, only God and his divine children have the ability to hold it at bay, and perhaps increase order in the universe.

So, what do you get out of Abraham’s Creation story?